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Looking for something to hold you over until the next season of Downton Abbey? Luckily the show’s creator also fancies himself a novelist.

Julian Fellowes’ debut novel, Snobs, was released in 2004, and from my perspective is a story of Downton in the 1990s. The satire of the manners and expectations of the upper class gives a glimpse into the world of society and showbiz that Fellowes knows very well.

The story centers around the obnoxious decisions of Edith Lavery (hardly a lady) who marries an earl and is thrust into a world where who you know and telling people who you know is really the only thing people care about. It’s a tale of modern England and class still matters. Fellowes’ story is full of characters who will annoy you and characters you might sympathize with. You may also picture the familiar Downton cast in some scenes that take place in grand homes around even grander tables.

Fellowes doesn’t characterize this book about class, but rather about choice and how lives are the products of the choices we make.

There’s no Maggie Smith to deliver wit and wisdom, but a colorful and very rich cast of characters will show you what life at Downton just might look like 70 years later.